Welcome to Joe Whitefield.com. I don’t know how you found us, but I’m glad you did.

This site is born from three decades of engineering and facilities management work – most of it on a university campus. Facilities management on a campus has one very distinct and important condition; you must live with your decisions for a long time. This includes engineering decisions in facilities that affect building performance, operations and maintainability as well as managerial decisions that drive the effectiveness and harmony of the organization. In all cases the goal is sound decision making that benefits the institution while standing the test of time.

I am extremely fortunate to have worked for and with many gifted professionals who were willing to share their expertise, experiences, and wisdom to help me in my endeavors and professional development. Likewise, I often share information and my experiences with many colleagues and friends who think that I can help and are willing to endure my ruminations. In facilities management I think there are not fifty problems, but rather five problems repeated ten times. This mindset challenges us to take known solutions and apply them to new and different problems.

The purpose of this site is to keep the education exchange cranking. We want to identify problems and opportunities, understand priorities and trade-offs, and ultimately assist with resolutions that are economically profitable. To assist with organizing the basic material, the topics will be loosely divided into four broad categories; Facilities Management, Leadership and Communication, Economics, and Behavioral Economics. Many presentations will overlap and borrow generously from the fundamentals of different categories. However, the topics are organized so that additional information on a specific subject can be more easily researched on this site or other sources.

Since an exchange implies two-way communication, I will be sharing information and ideas to anyone who is interested and seeking to collect information and ideas from anyone willing to contribute. I hope to provide a few platforms that promote this idea. The format will include podcasts (The Thinking Bucket), written articles and survey questions seeking responses that promote discussions. Finally, we will try to use common, everyday language to facilitate the conversations.

Again, we are glad you found us. Hopefully you will find something helpful.

The Thinking Bucket is a new podcast that highlights short discussions on a variety of topics – still concentrating on the big four: Leadership and Communication, Economics, Behavioral Economics, and Facilities Management. Episodes will include brief lectures, some interviews, and even some mini-discussions on specific terms or concepts that are used in multiple recordings. Using every day terminology, they are meant to be light, informative, and hopefully interesting.

The podcast and website is produced and edited by Hallie Plunkett.